Tibor Szanyi Meets Burgenland Leader of SPÖ

Common European social benefits were discussed at the meeting of EP candidate for the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), Christian Dax and the MSZP delegation headed by Vice President of the party and EP candidate, Tibor Szanyi in Oberwart, Austria.

Both allied parties support the Social Europe program, therefore, the two candidates both stand for the European Union introducing a standard European minimum wage, a minimum pension and standard European family allowances, said Szanyi in Sopron following the meeting.

He said that they were fighting together with the head of SPÖ Burgenland Province for the restoration of the social benefits for workers commuting to Austria, including Hungarians, which was reduced to half in Austria as of the beginning of this year.

"This is incompatible with the European legal order," Szanyi said.

He reported that they shared experiences regarding guest workers. MSZP’s Győr-Moson-Sopron County president László Kránitz and president of the party in Sopron Imre Németh told Dax: Recently there is tension caused by the fact that guest workers coming to the factories there from Eastern Hungary and Eastern countries outside the EU are forced into renting beds in Sopron.

In addition, they need to share beds: as they work in 3 shifts, only the one can sleep in the rented bed who is not on a shift at the time. The accommodation shortage problem is further increased by the fact that Hungarian guest workers working in Austria often stay overnight in Sopron, too.

Szanyi and Dax also discussed European taxation of multinational corporations. Sanyi said that while small and medium-sized enterprises are taxed at 25-30 percent in the European Union, the “net taxpayers' position of multinationals is zero.” And this must be changed.

The housing situation in Europe was also mentioned: Dax and Szanyi agreed that the building of community, social, and social rental housing should remedy the housing shortage, rather than loans, as suggested by the right-wing European People's Party.